One week after the record-breaking debut of Stellaris , which can now claim the most successful launch of any Paradox Interactive project to date, the game’s publisher is finally ready to give fans some idea of what to expect from the Stellaris dev team in the immediate and long-term future.
The latest word on Stellaris comes courtesy of game director Henrik Fåhraeus, who published a lengthy update on Paradox’s plans for post-launch development. According to Fåhraeus, even Paradox was taken back by just how popular Stellaris has proven to be during its first week on the market. The director acknowledged some of the most frequent complaints being expressed by players, like the lack of mid-game content in Stellaris, and promised Paradox would prioritize fixes for some of the big issues that have already been uncovered by the community.
Fåhraeus’ post wasn’t just an opportunity for a high-ranking member of the Stellaris dev team to take a public victory lap. The game director also offered the Stellaris community an idea of what to expect, in terms of post-launch support, over the next few months. Fans of previous Paradox Interactive releases probably won’t be shocked to hear the company plans to release quite a bit of Stellaris DLC in the coming years. But the studio will first turn its attention to the bugs that have been discovered in the launch build of Stellaris and fixing the “colony events” that were supposed to flesh out the mid-game. Fåhraeus says the Stellaris team will focus on bug fixes and other free updates for the rest of the month, along with the entirety of June, before working on whatever Stellaris DLC will be coming out of the pipeline first.
Most importantly, Fåhraeus says fans can expect the first Stellaris patch to arrive later this month. Updates for Paradox Interactive’s latest strategy game will be named after famous science-fiction authors, beginning with Arthur C. Clarke. Here’s what Fåhraeus says we can expect from the May and June patches:
"CLARKE" HIGHLIGHTS
Fixes to the Ethic Divergence and Convergence issues. Currently, Pops tend to get more and more neutral (they lose Ethics, but rarely gain new ones.)
The End of Combat Summary. This screen looks bad and also doesn’t tell you what you need to know in order to revise your ship designs, etc.
Sector Management GUI: There are many issues with this, and we will try to get most of them fixed.
Diplomacy GUI issues . This includes the Diplomatic Pop-Ups when other empires contact you, but also more and better looking Notifications, and more informative tooltips on wars, etc.
AI improvements: Notably the Sector AI, but also plenty of other things. This kind of work is never "finished"...
Myriads of bug fixes and smaller GUI improvements.
Late game crises bugs. There were some nasty bugs in there, blocking certain subplots and various surprising developments.
EDIT: Remaining Performance Issues. We know about them; they might even be hotfixed before Clarke.
EDIT: Corvettes are too good.
"ASIMOV" HIGHLIGHTS (NOT SET IN STONE!)
Border Access Revision: Borders are now open to your ships by default, although empires can choose to Close their borders for another empire (lowering your relations, of course.)
Tributaries: New diplomatic status and corresponding war goals.
Joint Declarations of War: You can ask other empires to join you for a temporary alliance in a war against a specific target.
Defensive Pacts.
Harder to form and maintain proper Alliances .
More war goals: Humiliate, Open Borders, Make Tributary, etc.
Emancipation Faction . We had to cut this one at the last minute. Needs redesign.
Diplomatic Map Mode. Much requested!
Diplomatic Incidents: This is a whole class of new scripted events that causes more interaction with the other empires.
But the game’s director didn’t stop there. In addition to revealing current plans for the first two Stellaris patches, Fåhraeus provided a summary of Paradox Interactive’s current plans for the first gameplay-focused Stellaris update. The patch will be named after Robert A. Heinlein and expand aspects of the game that are currently a bit light in the content department.
Here’s everything Fåhraeus says Paradox wants to have ready in July:
CURRENT "HEINLEIN" INTENTIONS
Sector and Faction Politics: We are working on a design for this. I always wanted to make Factions more closely tied to Sectors, for example...
Federation and Alliance Politics: As a player, you need more ways of interacting with the other members, push your will through, and get elected, etc.
Giving Directions to Allies and Subject States.
Strategic Resource Overhaul: You should need these and search for them far and wide. They should be extremely important.
Battleship Class Weapons . Some Battleship front sections will be repurposed for an XL size weapon slot. There are currently four ship sizes but only three sizes to weapons, creating an imbalance. Also, Battleships should have fewer small weapon slots and have to rely on screens of smaller ships.
Fleet Combat Mechanics : Formations and/or more complex ship behavior is needed.
Mid-game scripted content: Guarded “treasures”, mid-game crises, colony events, etc.
Living Solar Systems : Little civilian ships moving around, etc.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Stellaris coverage throughout 2016 and for however long Paradox supports Stellaris in the months ahead.
